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Eclipse
looking at apostles still in their human form.]] The Eclipse is a very rare event in the world of Berserk, occurring happening once every 216 years to seek a new member for the God Hand. Triggering an Eclipse is something similar to summoning the God Hand to be transformed into an Apostle, involving the very same elements, such as an individual in strong emotional distress feeling compelled to do everything to escape his suffering and/or to achieve a dream he/she can follow in no other way, and the use of a Behelit. However the individual chosen by Fate to be members of the God Hand, rather than mere Apostles, bears a particular form of Behelit, the Crimson variety, also called the 'Egg of the King' or 'Egg of the Conqueror'. When the Chosen draws upon the power of the Crimson Behelit, instead of being asked to sacrifice one or a few single dear ones, a large feast is called upon, every Apostle loyal to the Hand is gathered, and the Chosen is asked to offer them a larger Sacrifice, consecrating to the Hand a huge amount of people. Then, every Apostle is allowed to feed on them, and the Chosen One is reborn as a member of the Hand, with the same powers and the same limitations of the others. The Eclipse ceremony actually briefly shunts the Chosen One and his consecrated sacrifices into a realm between the physical realm and the astral realm known as the Nexus, allowing the incorporeal God Hand and the corporeal sacrifices and Apostles to coexist. It is rare for a consecrated sacrifice to escape alive, but in the event that this happens, he or she remains out-of-sync with the physical world, able to interact with the physical world, but will be pursued and sought after by every sort of demonic being of the astral realm, hoping to exact the "payment" offered by the Chosen. Since the members of the God Hand lack a physical body, a very similar ceremony, the Incarnation Ceremony may be performed every 1000 years. Even if apparently not dissimilar, it does not involve a Crimson Behelit and does not involve the creation of new Apostles. It allows one of the members of the God Hand to be reborn in a fleshy body, fully able to interact with the physical plane. Griffith's Rebirth The first witnessed Eclipse happens at the very end of the Golden Age story, when the real significance of Griffith's Crimson Behelit is revealed. In fact, Griffith, maimed and crippled after one long year of grueling tortures, comes again in contact with his Behelit, lost during the imprisonment, and confronted by the four Members of the God Hand. Unable to follow his dreams as a useless cripple and trapped in a delusional and unstable mental state, he accepts the sacrifice, calling upon the Eclipse and letting the Apostles feed on the Band of the Hawk in exchange for becoming the fifth member of the God Hand, Femto. This act is the starting point of Guts' voyage. Branded by the God Hand but saved by the Skull Knight, he initially decides to pursue Griffith and exact vengeance for his betrayal, but later abandons his vengeance to search of a cure for Casca, who was driven insane by the abuses she suffered during the Eclipse. It is heavily implied that a previous Eclipse took place centuries previously in what would later become Midland's capital city of Wyndham. The previous Eclipse apparently involved Emperor Gaiseric along with a mysterious figure who had been imprisoned in his dungeons. It is hinted that one or both of these figures may have gone on to become Void or the Skull Knight, but the precise circumstances involved are unknown at this time. Trivia *The 216-year time gap between every Eclipse may be a reference to the Number of the Beast in the Bible, 666. The triple occurrence of 666 translates into 6 cubed, or 216, or double the number 108, a significant number in Buddhism. *While officially the rebirth of the crippled Griffith as the God Hand Femto, the Eclipse could be also viewed as a rebirth of Guts and Casca: Guts fell into and surfaced from a pool of blood during the Feast, similar to how he was found in a pool of his mother's blood, and was later taught to fight the spiritual forces and Apostles, and Casca, brilliant general and talented leader of the Hawks, was reduced to an infantile mental state. Category:Events